Dview: The Maw (XBLA)

The Bottom Line:
The Maw is a somewhat charming platformer by the people at Twisted Pixel.  It is kind of hard to believe that this is from the same people as 'Splosion Man and Comic Jumper (much harder and more frustrating games).  It is about a multi-eyed alien and his gelatinous purple blob that likes to eat.  The Maw can transform slightly to gain new abilities and eat bigger creatures.  Essentially, you are leading the Maw around and making sure that he get a healthy amount of creatures to eat.  This is more of a slow paced platformer that places a little emphasis on exploring.  i guess it helps that this game is kind of easy.   

There are three unfortunately labeled DLCs for the Maw - Brute Force, River Redirect and Speeder Lane.  i think they are 100 MSFT points each ($1.25) which add another 50 possible gamerscore. 
Grade A  

What to Expect:
* A kind of slower paced forgiving platformer.  This is not like Twisted Pixel's other two games.  This one came out first and does not have the "comic edge" the other two has.  But to me, this has better gameplay
* A colorful purple blob who eats enemies to grow (or change to solve puzzles) - but you, a multi-eyed alien have to lead him to his prey (much of the time)
* 8 Levels of platforming culinarity (just kidding, the Maw eats his prey mostly raw - though he can sometimes breathe fire)
* Light puzzle solving
* A last level unlike the others - the Maw gets bigger when he eats, in the last level you have to use vehicles (i hate vehicles in games)
* Bonus DLC: These 3 levels feel much like the first 7, though Speeder Lane has you in a vehicle the whole time (but it is almost like you are not)

Achievements:
There are 12 achievements for 200 points (or 15 for 250 with the "deleted scenes").  These range from things like eat all of the things on the levels, to using trasformation powers to defeat X enemies, to playing the game at the Maw's 6 meal times (the most annoying one).